Bar Harbor Regency Pool
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Holiday Inn Bar Harbor Regency at Acadia National Park, Maine

ByThe Miles Professor

While visiting Acadia National Park over July 4th, we stayed at the Bar Harbor Regency, owned by Holiday Inn. It’s a resort right on the ocean and quite a bit more upscale than your usual Holiday Inn. We spent two nights at the hotel and it was perfectly convenient to explore Acadia National Park. We used the miles we had with the Barclaycard Arrival World Mastercard (referral link) to pay for the hotel at $229 per night and were even able to redeem our miles to cover most of the bill of $560 at the end, which included drinks, breakfast and other meals during our stay.

This is part of a trip report series, where I cover the various parts of our five day vaca­tion includ­ing how we planned the whole thing for under $200 after using miles and points:

Location and Setting

The hotel is on Eden Road just a few miles from Acadia National Park and downtown Bar Harbor. The whole place has a very resort-like feel with restaurants, activities, a pool, a hot-tub, places to walk all on the premises. It’s significantly more upscale than the usual Holiday Inn. In fact, except at the entrance (so you can actually find it in case you’re looking for the Holiday Inn), there is never mention again of Holiday Inn again. 

The Bar Harbor Regency offers a shuttle to Acadia (and Acadia itself has shuttles to take you around the park), but we had a car with us and did not take advantage of the shuttle option. 

We really liked the view around the resort. Then again, we really liked the view from almost anywhere in Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park. 

Here are a few photos of views right around the hotel:

Bar Harbor Regency Views
Views around Bar Harbor Regency

Rooms

We got the most basic room available, the King Bed Leisure Room. It has a King Bed, a table with chairs and a view onto the garden. The hotel does have rooms with much nicer views that face the ocean, but we were quite satisfied with the room we booked. After all, in a beautiful place like Acadia National Park, we prefer to spend our time outside exploring.

Every room includes with the rate free WiFi internet access. Though due to the somewhat remote location of Acadia National Park, internet out there is unsurprisingly not very fast. Check-in is at 4 pm and check-out is at 11 am. If you ask, check-out can be extended to 12 pm. I was able to negotiate 1 pm because I have top tier status with Intercontinental Hotel Group and this is the only status benefit I got during my stay.

Room at Bar Harbor Regency
King Leisure Room at Bar Harbor Regency

Pool

The pool was probably my favorite hotel feature for many reasons. First, it was perched atop a hill with an unbelievable view of the ocean both from the pool and hot tub.

Bar Harbor Regency Pool
Bar Harbor Regency Pool

But the main reason I liked the pool was the fact that it was extremely well heated. Not that it wasn’t warm outside, but during the day we were too busy hiking, watching sunsets, ocean kayaking and exploring to go swim in the pool. Late after dinner is the most fun time to go swimming, but the cool water is usually not pleasant by then. Nevertheless, this pool was well heated and we had a really fun time swimming around while reminiscing about the day’s adventures and planning what we would do the next day.

We met a few other people hanging out by the hot tub at night and shared our adventures. Everyone else we encountered drove to Acadia, some from very far away locations. A few examples included Chicago, Alabama or southern New Jersey. Like I said when I laid out my plane, Acadia is a bit tough to get to, but taking the train to Maine and flying back worked very well for us.

Restaurants and Dining

There are three restaurants at the hotel and information on all of them can be found on the dining section of the Bar Harbor Regency website.

Stewman’s Lobster Pound is a waterfront restaurant serving authentic Maine lobster fare. It is situated with a view of the marina. While the setting did look nice, we didn’t visit this restaurant and instead opted for dining in downtown Bar Harbor.

Poolside Tiki Bar is a bar by the pool with a Hawaiian theme that serves mainly smaller or more casual versions of the menu at Stewman’s Lobster Pound. We had a late breakfast/early lunch there on our first day before heading out to Acadia National Park. The bartender is a very friendly and told us lots about what it’s like to live in Maine all winter. He is a true year round resident of Bar Harbor. 

La Bella Vita Ristorante is within the hotel and serves only breakfast buffet and dinner daily. We had the breakfast buffet here on our second day. It was $16 per person and served a wide array of eggs, pancakes, omelettes, french toast, fruit and the usual expected options at a breakfast buffet.

How We Paid For Our Stay With Miles

We paid $229 a night for a King Leisure Room. The hotel is a member of IHG Rewards club and costs 35,000 IHG Rewards points a night. I didn’t have many IHG Rewards points, though they can be bought for 0.7 cents each with the cash and points method. Even buying the points, the hotel would then cost $245 so $229 a night is actually a better rate plus it earned us points to use for future stays.

Bar Harbor does not have any of the usual chain hotels where I have points: Marriott, Starwood, Hilton or Hyatt. There’s not much competition for hotels around Acadia National Park. Also, since I went from Friday to Sunday over July 4th weekend, I could not find any good rates on Hotwire or Priceline, the hidden hotel discount sites I often use.  My newly earned Barclaycard Arrival miles saved me from having to pay out of pocket for an expensive stay in Bar Harbor. The card allows me to redeem the miles for any travel expense after I pay for it with my card. In fact, because we charged everything else at the hotel (breakfast, drinks, lunch) to the room, I was able to use my card and redeem the Barclaycard Arrival miles to cover most of the other expenses too. 

Our total room bill was $560 after everything. The Barclaycard Arrival World MasterCard came with a 40,000 mile signup bonus covering $400 and earning a 10% rebate on the miles. I’ve had the card for a few months so had collected 51,000 points (it earns 2 points for every dollar spent) and was able to redeem them for $510 of the bill. I already got a 5,100 mile rebate and can use it later on for another $51 in travel expenses. I really need to earn more Barclaycard Arrival miles for more trips!

Check out the rest of the Maine and Aca­dia National Park trip report about our vaca­tion to Maine and how we planned it for under $200 by using miles and points:

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